Only God Can Tell Us What Will Happen

Isaiah 41:8-16

Verse 8 is a sharp contrast between Israel and the pagan nations of verses 1-7. Because of God’s everlasting covenant with Abraham his “friend,” he will take hold of Israel with his righteous right hand (vv. 8-10). God speaks plainly of the enemies of his chosen people in verses 11-16, assuring his weak children (“worm Jacob”) that they will look in triumph over their once terrifying but now defeated foes (vv. 11-12). God will make Israel into a mighty threshing board, with many new teeth (v. 15). The mountains they thresh represent the looming obstacles the little worm Israel is facing, but those problems will become like chaff swept away before the wind. There will come a time when God’s people will search for any enemies at all and find none.

Though we may see the immediate fulfillment of these words in the destruction of Babylon by Cyrus the Great, yet it is farfetched to say that under the Persian domination Israel will look for enemies but find none (v. 12). This language points ultimately to Christ’s kingdom. Our real enemies (“mountains,” v. 15) are spiritual, not political or military. Our sins are as mighty as mountains in their threat to our souls. So also Satan and his demons are arrayed against us, as are his human servants in this world. In Christ alone are all these spiritual threats defeated. By Christ’s death and resurrection alone will verses 10-16 be fulfilled. Only after the second coming of Christ will Satan soon be crushed under our feet (Rom 16:20).

Isaiah 41:17-20

The powerful image of a drought-stricken land, with people desperately seeking life-giving water, stands before us in these verses. It represents both a literal and a spiritual reality. The promised land was cursed by drought when Israelites violated the Mosaic covenant (Deut 28:23-24). Theirs was a land “flowing with milk and honey,” richly blessed year round with abundant water. But because of their sins, God had turned this beautiful land into “barren heights” (v. 18), and its inhabitants were seeking water but finding none (v. 17).

Yet the deeper thirst is spiritual. As Psalm 63:1 says, “God, you are my God; I eagerly seek you. I thirst for you . . . in a land that is dry, desolate, and without water.” Distance from God creates spiritual drought. But verses 17-20 here promise that God has power to turn the desert into gushing mountain springs. Though it is possible that God did this literally in the promised land after the exile, the real issue is of spiritual revival by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Isaiah 44:3 likens the outpouring of the Spirit on God’s people to water poured on desert land. The flourishing plant life of our text (vv. 19-20) represents both the literal transformation of the earth ultimately by Christ in the new earth (Rom 8:20-24) and the spiritual transformation of his people by their faith in him.

Isaiah 41:21-29

The chapter resumes God’s jealous contest with the idols that have seduced the heart of his bride (v. 21). Like Elijah’s duel with Baal on Mt. Carmel, it is the Lord who determines the ground rules for the contest. In this case it is this: predict the future. The clear implication of this is that no created being—neither human, nor angel, nor demon—knows the future apart from the revelation of God. God is sovereign, and he decides what will happen in his universe. As we saw in Isaiah 7:7, God is able to veto any plan of even the mightiest movers and shakers on planet Earth. Conversely, as we saw in Isaiah 14:27, no one has the power to veto even the smallest of his plans. God has determined every twist and turn of history (Acts 17:26; Eph 1:11), including all the mighty emperors with their impressive conquests, the sparkling cities they would build, how long they would rule, what scientific advances they would sponsor, and what effect they would have on literature and language, music and culture. God is able to predict the future because he has already decreed the future, even to the smallest detail (like Cyrus’s name). He is then supremely capable of bringing it to pass.

The idols can do nothing since they represent gods that don’t exist. In the end, the living God mocks them, saying, “Do something, whether good or bad!” They stand there motionless, while God raises up world rulers like Cyrus (v. 25).

God’s purpose in inspiring this chapter was ultimately the salvation of his own elect children. We are the ones who read the Bible with faith and marvel at its astonishing predictive prophecies. And by far the most important predictions God ever made center on Christ: his birth, life, death, and resurrection. The lesser prophecies about Cyrus and Alexander are not nearly as significant as those predicting Christ. Can Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Mormonism, or any other false religion compete in the contest God has set up in Isaiah 41? Let them bring forth their prophecies!

Deeper than that, we can take assurance from the fact that God does all this for his defenseless people—“worm Jacob.” God called Abraham his “friend” in verse 8, and we were chosen to be his children by faith in Christ. So we can hold verse 10 to our trembling hearts as major events shake our world: “Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will help you; I will hold on to you with my righteous right hand.” What a powerful promise to cling to if a child is fighting for his life in an ICU, a woman suddenly becomes a widow one dreadful afternoon, or a weak Christian minority in a predominantly Muslim country sees their nation invaded by militant Islamic forces. God is controlling large and small events to ensure that not one of his elect will be lost but that all will come to final salvation through faith in Christ. There will come a day when God Omnipotent will have removed all of our foes forever (v. 12).